That's where something like openspec and beads come in. You work high level, create a spec and break it down into beads (small tasks). Your main agent then spawns workers that perform a task with limited scope.
Having led the process from the other side, the more often your name comes up in a positive light, the better your chances. Odds are that OPs work simply wasn't mentioned much by his peers. The person you are replying to was absolutely on the money.
Promotions aren't a popularity contest, but they definitely are a popularity contest.
For us it was okta. Not only in their subscription cost, but also because using okta meant we had to upgrade most of our SaaS subscriptions to their enterprise package.
Got rid of it, hired 2 people with a small portion of the budget that was freed up and never looked back.
So a near 44% price reduction for a 50% reduction in only one of the components. Looks like progression to me.